In Canada, we have a new multiple-answer test for immigrants wanting to become citizens. They need to get 15 right out of the 20 questions, which are:
- Identify four (4) rights that Canadians enjoy.
-Name four (4) fundamental freedoms that Canadians enjoy.
-What is meant by the equality of women and men?
-What are some examples of taking responsibility for yourself and your family?
-Who were the founding peoples of Canada?
-Who are the Metis?
-What does the word "Inuit" mean?
-What is meant by the term "responsible government"?
-Who was Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine?
-What did the Canadian Pacific Railway symbolize?
-What does Confederation mean?
-What is the significance of the discovery of insulin by Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best?
-What does it mean to say that Canada is a constitutional monarchy?
-What are the three branches of government?
-What is the difference between the role of the Queen and that of the Prime Minister?
-What is the highest honour that Canadians can receive?
-When you go to vote on election day, what do you do?
-Who is entitled to vote in Canadian federal elections?n.
-In Canada, are you obliged to tell other people how you voted?
-After an election, which party forms the government?
-Who is your Member of Parliament?
-What are the three levels of government?
-What is the role of the courts in Canada?
-In Canada, are you allowed to question the police about their service or conduct?
-Name two Canadian symbols.
-What provinces are sometimes referred to as the Atlantic Provinces?
The full test, its multiple-choice answers, and its answers are here at a Canadian government Web site. Publius took the test and came up with his own answers. Here is one of them:
Q: Name four (4) fundamental freedoms that Canadians enjoy.
A: The freedom to speak, unless it offends a politically influential minority group.
The freedom to own property, unless it offends a politically influential environmental group.
The freedom to protest, unless it offends visiting dignitaries.
The freedom to bitch about the weather, unless it offends a co-worker who is a ski-nut.
The freedom to speak, unless it offends a politically influential minority group.
Hmm. Interesting to see what 'innocent' remarks Publius may have in mind about "influential" minorities, eh?
Posted by: DF | Jan 03, 2011 at 04:05 PM
The UK "Citizenship" test is awful - try it at http://www.ukcitizenshiptest.co.uk/ . I and almost all of my (UK native) friends failed it.
It doesn't ask important questions. Some things are downright pointless. Some things are potentially useful, but only in obscure situations, that you could look up when you needed (e.g., knowing how many weeks a school is open - even if you have children at school, you don't need to know the actual number off by heart). Some concepts are perhaps useful (e.g., that women have the right to divorce), but instead the test asks the least significant bit of information (who cares _exactly_ which year it was). And some questions are simply wrong (you don't need a letter from a GP to get hospital treatment - as I recently managed to myself; some results from the census are made available immediately, it's the specific individual responses and full dataset that takes 100 years).
You're given a book to learn from, but it means it's basically a pointless and difficult memory test, not something that anyone needs to know (or indeed, does know).
And this isn't even for citizenship, you need it just to get indefinite leave. Even if I and my American girlfriend marry - if she moves here, she'll be deported if she can't pass this pointless trivia memory test!
Posted by: Mark | Jan 12, 2011 at 03:36 PM